Author, opera director, and filmmaker Werner Herzog (1942) is a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, or individuals in conflict with nature. He is known for his unique filmmaking process, such as disregarding storyboards, emphasising improvisation, and placing the cast and crew in situations similar to those of the characters in his films.
François Truffaut once called Herzog “the most important film director alive,” and American critic Roger Ebert said that Herzog “has never created a single film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons, or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular.” Time Magazine named him as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2009.
